FL6 



FLU 



find it difficult to equal with her needle 

 and silk, the variety of colours ami shades 

 which he expresses by sparks of agate, 

 rub), amethyst, cornelian, jasper, lapis- 

 lazuii, and other precious stones. The 

 high altar piece, together with the ta- 

 bles on each side, arc entirely of this 

 Florentine work." 



The Fabrica Degli Uffici, erected at 

 Florence by Cosmo I., was appropriated 

 in part foi the reception of various ar- 

 tists, who worked exclusively for the 

 Grand Duke. " But among all the per- 

 formances executed here," says Keysler, 

 " that styled Florentine work is the most 

 elegant ; sparks of precious stones, and 

 particles of elegant marble, are so dispos- 

 ed as to represent the objerts of nature 

 in a very beautiful and surprising man- 

 ner ; but works of this kind require a 

 prodigious time to complete them. A 

 flower-piece lately finished, about a foot 

 and a half in length, and half a foot in 

 breadth, employed the artist above eigh- 

 teen months ; and a piece of embossed 

 work, about the size of a common sheet 

 of paper, representing the adoration of 

 the Eastern magi, and a group of angels 

 in the air, has already been forty years in 

 hand, and under the direction of several 

 masters. 



The late unhappy state of Italy, and the 

 probability of still further changes, has 

 been so fatally destructive of the arts, 

 that Florentine work will not soon be en- 

 couraged ; and 'here is little doubt this 

 laborious art will be almost lost. 



FLORIN is sometimes used for a coin, 

 and sometimes for a money of account. 

 See COIN. 



FLORY, FLOWRY, or FLEURY, in he- 

 raldry, a cross that has the flowers at the 

 end circumflex and turning down, differ- 

 ing from the poteiice, inasmuch as the 

 latter stretches out more like that which 

 is called patee. 



FLOTILLA, a name given to a number 

 of ships which get before the rest in their 

 return, and give information of the de- 

 parture and cargo of the flota and gal- 

 leons. 



FLOUR, the meal of wheat-corn, finely 

 ground and sifted. Flour, when carefully 

 analyzed, is found to be composed, 1, of 

 fecula, which is insoluble in cold water, 

 btit soluble in hot water; 2, of gluten; 3, 

 of a saccharine matter, susceptible of the 

 spirituous fermentation. 



FLOWER, in botany. By this term, 

 former botanists, as Ray and Tournefort, 

 &c. evidently meant the petals, or beau- 

 tiful coloured leaves of the plant, which 

 generally adhere to the seed-bud, or ru- 



diment of the fruit. Since the introduc- 

 tion of the sexual method, the petals have 

 lost their importance, and are now only 

 considered as a finer sort of cover, which 

 is generally present, but not essentially 

 necessary to the existence of a flower. 

 A flower then, in modern botany, is as 

 different in meaning from the same term 

 in former writers, as from the vulgar ac- 

 ceptations of the word at this day. The 

 petals, the calyx, nay, the threads or fila- 

 ments of the stamina, may all be wanting, 

 yet it is .1 flower still, provided the an- 

 thers, or male organ, and the stigma or 

 summit of the style, the female organ, 

 can be traced ; and that either immedi- 

 ately in the neighbourhood of one ano- 

 ther, as in most plants ; on different parts 

 of the same plant, as in the class Monoe-- 

 cia ; or on different plants raised from the 

 same seed, as in the class Dioecia. In 

 this manner is to be understood the ge- 

 neral principle with which the sexual 

 method sets out, that every vegetable is 

 furnished with flower and fruit. The es- 

 sence of the flower, therefore, consists in 

 the anthers and stigma, which constitute 

 a flower, whether the covers, that is, the 

 calyx and petals, are present or not. 



FLOWER de luce. See IBIS. 



FLOWER de Us, or FLOWER deluce y in 

 heraldry, a bearing representing the lily, 

 called the queen of flowers, and the true 

 hieroglyphic of royal majesty ; but of late 

 it is become more common, being borne 

 in some coats one, in others three, in 

 others five, and in some semee, or spread 

 all over the escutcheon in great numbers. 



FLOWERS, in chemistry, a term formerly 

 applied to a variety of substances procur- 

 ed by sublimation, and were in the form 

 of slightly cohering powder : hence, in all 

 old books, we find mention made of the 

 flowers of antimony, arsenic, zinc, and 

 bismuth, which are the sublimed oxides 

 of these metals, either pure, or combined 

 with a small quantity of sulphur : we have 

 also still in use, though not generally, the 

 terms, flowers of sulphur, benzoin, &c. 



FLUATES, in chemistry, salts, of which 

 the FLUORIC ACID (which see) is the chief 

 ingredient. Fluor spar, denominated flu- 

 ate of lime, which is found in great plen- 

 ty in many countries, and is very abun- 

 dant in Derbyshire, where it obtains the 

 name of Derbyshire spar, is the most im- 

 portant among the fluates. The chief pro- 

 perties of these salts are, 1. When sul- 

 phuricacid is poured upon them, they emit 

 acrid vapours of fluoric acid, which cor- 

 rode glass. 2. When heated, several of 

 them phosphoresce. 3. They are not de- 

 composed by heat, nor altered by combus- 



